NEWCASTLE Pro Wrestling co-owner Adam Harragon believes if you're good and tough enough, gender is no barrier to entering the ring.
On Friday night at Steel City Showdown, inside the ornate surrounds of Newcastle City Hall, Harragon has handpicked 23-year-old Zoe Barber, known as Rita Stone, to showcase why women deserve equal billing.
Newcastle Pro Wrestling will become one of the first promotions in Australia to end segregated male and female divisions when women's champion Rita Stone faces middleweight title-holder Harragon, who wrestles as Adam "Happy" Hoffman, in a unification match.
Going forward, there will no longer be separate men's and women's titles.
"Her [Barber] skill level and fitness level is very high, but her toughness is up there," Harragon said.
"She hits like a bloke, she can get hit like a bloke. There's no separating her from the rest of the field. She's a stand-out.
"Just like blokes that come through, not everyone can take the bumps and the hits, but she certainly can."
Much like the rise of women's sport with rugby league's NRLW, soccer's Matildas and cricket's WBBL, there's been a female revolution in the colourful world of professional wrestling.
International stars Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey have headlined world leader WWE's biggest event, Wrestlemania, and Australian performer Rhea Ripley is among the promotion's biggest stars.
However, except for a short period in the late '90s Attitude Era when Chyna wrestled men, WWE have kept the women's division separate.
Critics of men wrestling women say it's not believable, but Harragon is dismissive.
"It's not real, so there's no reason to do it," he says. "The women train with the men. They do all the same preparation, they have all the same skills.
"So there's no reason for the separation."
Barber hails from Tumbi Umbi on the Central Coast and started training under Harragon at Newcastle Pro Wrestling's Gateshead gym after finishing high school.
The 23-year-old describes the opportunity to face Happy Hoffman in the title unification match at Steel City Showdown as a "pretty big deal" for women's wrestling.
"We have the chance to be in the same field and compete in that same way and defend our belt against anyone, not just women, so we can prove where we stand on the shows and as wrestlers," Barber said.
Barber wrestles most weekends, splitting her time between Newcastle, Sydney's Renegade Wrestling Alliance and International Wrestling Australia and the Canberra-based Slam Pro Wrestling.
Last Saturday Rita Stone won the Slam Pro Wrestling women's title at Rage In The Cage II in front of 2500 people, the biggest crowd ever for an all-Australian show.
The exercise physiologist also does daily gym sessions and weekly wrestling training.
Barber describes Rita Stone's character as "relentless".
"Rita Stone never backs down from anything and is always up for whatever opportunity or opponent she goes up against," she said.
Steel City Showdown is one of Newcastle Pro Wrestling's biggest shows of the year and the five-bout card will also feature a heavyweight title stoush between champion Ben Braxton and Adam Brooks and a four-way ladder match for the tag team belts.
